United States House Election, 1988

The 1988 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives on November 8, 1988, to elect members to serve in the 101st United States Congress. They coincided with the election of George H. W. Bush as president. Although Bush won with a strong majority, his Republican Party lost a net of two seats to the Democratic Party, slightly increasing the Democratic majority in the House. It was the first time since 1960 that an incoming president's party lost seats in the House.

Overall results

409 incumbent members sought reelection, but one was defeated in a primary and six were defeated in the general election for a total of 402 incumbents winning. This was the highest number and percentage of incumbents who won reelection between 1954 and 1992.

The Republicans did not field a candidate in one-fourth of the seats in the Southern United States. This is the last congressional election in which Republicans won a House seat in Hawaii for a full term and the last time they won a seat in Vermont.

Source
Election Statistics – Office of the Clerk

Retirements

Democrats

# : Buddy MacKay retired to run for U.S. Senate.
# : Dan Mica retired to run for U.S. Senate.
# : Kenneth J. Gray retired.
# : Edward Boland retired.
# : Wayne Dowdy retired to run for U.S. Senate.
# : Peter W. Rodino retired.
# : Samuel S. Stratton retired.
# : Ed Jones retired.
# : Don Bonker retired run for U.S. Senate.
# : Mike Lowry retired run for U.S. Senate.

Republicans

# : Robert Badham retired.
# : Dan Lungren retired to become California State Treasurer.
# : Connie Mack III retired to run for U.S. Senate.
# : Trent Lott retired to run for U.S. Senate.
# : Gene Taylor retired.
# : Hal Daub retired to run for U.S. Senate.
# : Judd Gregg retired to run for governor of New Hampshire.
# : Manuel Lujan Jr. retired.
# : George C. Wortley retired.
# : Judd Gregg retired to run for U.S. President.
# : Del Latta retired.
# : Beau Boulter retired to run for U.S. Senate.
# : Jim Jeffords retired to run for U.S. Senate.

Resignations and deaths

Democrats

# : Bill Boner resigned October 5, 1987, to become Mayor of Nashville.
# : Dan Daniel Incumbent died January 24, 1988.
# : James J. Howard died March 25, 1988.

Republicans

# : Buddy Roemer resigned March 3, 1988, to become Governor of Louisiana.
# : John Duncan Sr. died June 21, 1988.

Incumbents Defeated

In Primary Elections

Republicans

# : Ernie Konnyu lost renomination to Tom Campbell, who won the general election.

In General Elections

Democrats

Two Democrats lost re-election to Republicans
# : Bill Chappell lost re-election to Craig James.
# : Fernand St Germain lost re-election to Ronald Machtley.

Republicans

4 Republicans lost re-election to Democrats
# : Pat Swindall lost re-election to Craig James.
# : Jack Davis lost re-election to George E. Sangmeister.
# : Joe DioGuardi lost re-election to Nita Lowey.
# : Mac Sweeney lost re-election to Greg Laughlin.

Open seats that changed parties

Republican seats won by Democrats

Two Republican seats were won by Democrats:
# : won by Peter Hoagland.
# : won by Bill Sarpalius.

Democratic seats won by Republicans

One Democratic seat was won by a Republican:
# : won by Cliff Stearns.

Open seats that parties held

Democratic seats held by Democrats

Democrats held twelve of their open seats
#: Won by Harry Johnston
#: Won by Glenn Poshard
#: Won by Richard Neal
#: Won by Michael Parker
#: Won by Frank Pallone
#: Won by Donald M. Payne
#: Won by Elliot Engel
#: Won by Michael McNulty
#: Won by John S. Tanner
#: Won by Jolene Unsoeld
#: Won by Jim McDermott
#'': Won by Eni Faleomavaega''

Republican seats held by Republicans

Republicans held thirteen of their open seats
#: Won by Tom Campbell
#: Won by Christopher Cox
#: Won by Dana Rohrabacher
#: Won by Porter Goss
#: Won by Larkin I. Smith
#: Won by Mel Hancock
#: Won by Chuck Douglas
#: Won by Steven Schiff
#: Won by James T. Walsh
#: Won by Bill Paxon
#: Won by Paul Gillmor
#: Won by Jimmy Duncan, who also won the district's special election, see below
#: Won by Peter Plympton Smith

Special elections

Ordered by election date, then by state/district.

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Source:

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Non-voting delegates

, -
! American Samoa at-large
, Fofō Iosefa Fiti Sunia
,
, 1980
, , Incumbent resigned September 6, 1988.
New delegate elected.
Democratic hold.
, nowrap ,
, -
! District of Columbia at-large
, Walter Fauntroy
,
, 1970
, Incumbent re-elected.
, nowrap ,
, -
! Guam at-large
, Ben Blaz
,
, 1986
, Incumbent re-elected.
, nowrap ,
, -
! Puerto Rico at-large
, Jaime Fuster
, , Popular Democratic/
Democratic
, 1984
, Incumbent re-elected.
, nowrap ,
, -
! U.S. Virgin Islands at-large
, Ron de Lugo
,
, 1972
1978 (retired)
1980
, Incumbent re-elected.
, nowrap ,

See also

* 1988 United States elections
** 1988 United States gubernatorial elections
** 1988 United States presidential election
** 1988 United States Senate elections
* 100th United States Congress
* 101st United States Congress

Notes

External links

Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 8, 1988
Office of the Clerk U.S. House of Representatives

References

Works cited

*
*

{{United States House of Representatives elections

Presidency of George H. W. Bush
John Conyers
Larry Craig
John Dingell
Dick Durbin
Barney Frank
Dennis Hastert
John Lewis
Ed Markey
Chuck Schumer
Jamie Whitten